Richard Bender hails from a farm in Northeastern Indiana. He grew up in a region north of Fort Wayne near Auburn and attended Leo High School. His time in high school played a role in his motivation to become a teacher himself.
Bender was highly involved as a high-school student. He was active in academics and sports. He participated athletically year-round, competing in cross county, volleyball, basketball, and baseball. To him going to class was enjoyable, and his teachers were his role models.
Many opportunities arose for Bender. After his high-school graduation, he received a scholarship to go to Purdue University to become an engineer. He didn’t know much about what one did, however, so he instead chose to further his studies at Manchester College where he was able to remain a two-sport athlete.
Bender earned a master’s in secondary science education at Indiana University Northwest. He now teaches at Victory Christian Academy in Valparaiso; he’s been there for about a decade. It’s a job he’s somewhat done out of retirement, since he worked for nearly 40 years at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
The whole time he was leading classes at the middle-school level, he also led Science Olympiad teams alongside Carol Haller, combining his love for teaching and coaching. Science Olympiad is an event in which eighth and ninth graders go head-to-head in contests which necessitate creative scientific skills. Students have their distinct specialties, and with Bender they would work hard to perform at the highest levels to win.
“We’d work for an hour and a half four days a week for seven months, so it’d go from November to May,” he said. “It was like a track meet. You might’ve had a person who’s really good at building things, and they might build a tower or a mousetrap. You might’ve had students who were good at studying, and they might’ve done tree identification or something in anatomy.”
Bender’s teams always advanced to the last stages in most tournaments. Each of the trips he took to them presented their own unique journeys. He had to advance out of the region by taking home victories in Regionals, but it regularly was smooth sailing thereafter. His teams won 31 State titles under his leadership, and twice they claimed them in Nationals.
In 1993, Bender’s Science Olympiad effort took first place in Nationals for the first time, winning in Colorado. From that year until 2005, every state championship belonged to him and his competitors. The joy of it all for him was in positioning a spotlight over the kids, helping them shine in a sphere of brightness representing the deeper development of their interest in the sciences.
“Science Olympiad allows an opportunity for bright kids to excel and compete,” he said. “Hopefully I instilled in them a love for science. I like to do as many hands-on activities, because those are the lessons kids remember, and I enjoyed the combination of teaching science and getting to coach it like a sport.”
Bender and his students clearly found success after the nationwide Science Olympiad. Street signs recognizing his dominance as a leader and how that’s helped him achieve greatness over the years stand around multiple entrances to Valparaiso. A reporter formerly local went on to write for “The Wall Street Journal” at a time, and they once returned to town to highlight his team for a front-page feature in a 2006 issue of the newspaper.
Nowadays Bender does more of a job keeping his feet on the ground. He’ll teach classes weekly, his schedule alternating. They last 90 minutes, and within that time he instructs concerning complexities in biology, for instance, breaking them down. He’s been looking lately to develop the academy’s greenhouse. There are challenges in his vocation, but he knows how to find ways around them.
“It’s about keeping the kids motivated and focused, ultimately, and working with parents is sometimes tricky, but that’s everything you get when it comes to what’s challenging, so having fun is key,” he said. “The kids’ll remember the fun things you did, and out of that what kind of person you were and how you treated them.”
Bender’s wife is a golf professional at Creekside Golf Course in Porter County. One of his hobbies has become golfing. He works out at the YMCA locally five days a week. He and his wife usually travel to warmer places come Christmastime.
Bender actually met his wife in Valparaiso, as she’s a local. She taught at the high school. The city is special in their hearts. They live on Flint Lake, so they experience outstanding summers. They find all the perks offered nearby pleasant.
“I like living close to the Dunes and going up there to get on the trails by the lake. Valparaiso is a great city for a family to be,” he said. “It’s got a great school system, it’s got really fantastic parks, and it’s really just a good town.”